Frank Harmon Architect PA, a Raleigh, NC, located architectural company, has got a 2011 Honor Award for its new Lath House design in J.C. Raulston Arboretum at North Carolina State University in Raleigh.
The Honor Award was presented by American Institute of Architects’ (AIA NC) North Carolina Chapter. The Lath House, which received one among the two Honor Awards given this year was an unpaid project and a gift to the Arboretum by Harmon’s firm.
Lath House JC Raulston Arboretum. Credit: JC Raulston Arboretum
The Lath House is built as an open-air laboratory for the use of horticultural research. Its wood made two-by-two cover meets the precise light-to-shade proportion required by the young plants before they are moved into the larger plots of gardens. According to Frank Harmon, the principal of the firm, the structure of Lath House was planned to represent a tree that propagates its branches to care for the plants. The present Lath House substituted an older building that provided protection for around 700 young plants that grow better under shade and the new construction has enough space for around 1,000 new saplings.
JC Raulston Arboretum spread over the 10.5 acre area is hailed as a garden with diverse and large collection of trees, shrubs and plants from more than 50 countries that are adapted for planting in the Southeastern countryside. The Lath House plays an important role in evaluating the collected plants to find superior varieties among them for planting in southern gardens.
The architectural company has earlier designed plant life projects such as open-air class room for NC Museum of Natural Science at Raleigh and the Prairie Ridge Eco-station, Raleigh located the Walnut Creek Wetlands Education Center, and the Visitors Education Center of NC Botanical Gardens at Chapel Hill located University of North Carolina.
Source: http://www.frankharmon.com